Monday 3 April 2017


Monday April 3rd 2017

Briefly re-visiting a blog post from 2009:  We have - within the last couple of days - discovered a couple of accounts that involve the stretch of Moxley canal (mentioned in the 2009 piece).

Some years ago, I was told by a local folklorist that a woman had supposedly drowned - somewhere down near 'Wards Bridge' - in the canal, in the Victorian period..... Unfortunately, despite having checked at the time, I could never find any such account!?  Ironically, however, I NOW find TWO separate incidents for the same stretch of canal - purely by accident - in one research sitting!!

The first instance occurred around the mid-1800's, when a man, dragging the canal for lumps of coal, was horrified to discover he had, instead, hooked the body of a woman!!  Sadly, no names were mentioned in the brief, newspaper account, though it was reported that her body was taken to the nearest public house for an inquest.....

In the second incident, in the latter half of the Victorian period, a woman by the name of Bunn was - unfortunately - thrown from a canal boat she was working on.... and became trapped between the boat and the 'kerb stones' bordering the canal itself!!  She was said to have been tightly 'wedged' there for some 15 minutes before finally expiring and despite the efforts of a local chemist who had been called to the accident site to try and help.....

Now, I must admit that I'm not a big believer in the popular notion of 'tragedy = ghost', but - being truly objective in such matters and accepting that a lot of people do - I guess the aforementioned incidents could well account for a 'ghostly woman' or two in that general area......?

The aforementioned blog article - entitled 'The Darlaston Poltergeist' - can be read 'HERE'.